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Moving Up from a Jolida JD9

Thinking about moving up from my modded Jolida JD9. It has Audyn caps, Sonic Imagery Discrete Op Amps, and sounds about as good as it ever will. I'd just like to have something that sounds smoother and more refined. I'd like to stay with tubes, preferably 12AX7's as I have a bunch of them already on hand. My budget is around $1500 and I have no problem with buying used gear. I have a VPI Scout with an ART9xa cart. I mostly listen to classic rock, blues, and smooth jazz. Any suggestions, opinions, advice will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Sam

128x128slovell
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slovell OP
55 posts
 

Yes it is. That’s one of the other carts I’ve got stashed. Went from the ART9 to the ART9XA and kept the ART9 for a spare.
From what I’ve read about the Ares I can get about 12dB added gain by using four 12AX7s instead of two 12AX7s and two 12AU7s. I have several old stock quads of both so let the rolling begin.
I'm really looking to hearing the Ares. I've been listening to the JD9 for ten years so it should be quite a difference from what I'm used to,

slovell's avatar
slovell OP
55 posts
 

Got it via UPS today. It's a really nice, well made unit. I'll probably hook it up tomorrow after I read the manual, get it set up for my cart, and decide which tubes I'm going to use in it. New toy, oh boy! 😎

slovell's avatar
slovell OP
55 posts
 

Got it installed but I've got a hum that I can't get rid of. Can't figure out where it's coming from. The Jolida was dead quiet. It almost sounds like it's picking up the transformer in the outboard power supply. Everything's grounded properly. There's switches inside the unit that affect grounding but the manual doesn't say much about them. The manual for this unit really doesn't say very much about anything. It doesn't even give you a diagram as to which tubes go where. The tube sockets aren't even marked on the board. It probably will sound pretty good if I can get rid of this ground hum. Anybody got any ideas?

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